Toronto firm celebrates ‘victory’ over Microsoft

TORONTO - A tiny Canadian IT firm, which won a big patent-infringement victory against software giant Microsoft Tuesday, couldnt have wished for a better Christmas gift. They are hoping the global publicity will spell growth in its fortunes.

Toronto-based i4i Inc, which will also get $290 million in damages from Microsoft for stealing its software Word, says its victory is “a war cry for talented inventors whose patents are infringed” by corporate sharks. Tuesday’s victory will serve as a springboard for growth, i4i executives told the media Wednesday.

In its ruling Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals in Washington upheld the order imposed on Microsoft by a lower court banning the software giant from selling Word processing software because of patent-infringement violations.

The order will come into effect from Jan 11 when Microsoft will have to stop selling Word 2003 and Word 2007.

Loudon Owen, i4i chairman and its largest share-holder, told the Canadian media that the court order is “vindication for i4i and a war cry for talented inventors whose patents are infringed” by bigger companies.

“The same guts and integrity that are needed to invent and go against the herd, are at the heart of success in patent litigation against a behemoth like Microsoft,” he told the Canadian Press.

“It is what we expected because right from the outset this is the remedy and what we’ve sought in the case.

“We believe the trial judge made the right decision; we believe the federal circuit court of appeals made the right decision and its now its not an end for us, its a beginning.”

Hoping that the publicity will help i4i grow big-time, Owen said, “It is a platform for us to build our company even larger and faster so it is a tremendously exciting day for i4i.

“I will say…we fully expect there is going to be a onslaught of business. We don’t talk about the size of the company today but I can wager a pretty good bet that we’re going to be a lot bigger soon.”

He said i4i fixes ‘one of the world’s big problems’ in managing mountains of data and the largest enterprises and the largest governmental organizations in the world use their technology to manage data.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)